FLAGS UNFURLED There are moments that unequivocally mark the passage of time.  Such a moment happened on Tuesday, as BFA’s new year got underway.  There were ghosts lurking in the corners of every room I entered on that day–ghosts that looked familiar, in a sweet-wistful-happy-sad kind of way. But how could I stay bittersweet for […]

MISSIONS AND DEATH BY APNEA It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon–possibly the last lazy afternoon there will be until Christmas break.  I’ve been marking the moment by multitasking in my favorite way: watching TV (sorta) while surfing the Internet, writing emails and keeping my eyes off the small mounds of un-put-away items that are testaments to […]

THE REASON WHY It was in late June that I received the following note from a whimsical and profound pixie in the girls’ dorm where I work.  It’s taken until now—with my return to BFA imminent—for me to respond to it.  I can’t think of a more appropriate time.  Here’s what Hallie wrote: I’ve been […]

SNEAK PEEK Hello everyone!  The novel isn’t being widely released yet (the website is still under construction), but those of you reading here get to take advantage of this special pre-release sale. THE NEW NOVEL! When Marshall Becker arrives in Lamorlaye, France, to begin the massive renovation of a Renaissance-era castle, he unearths a dark […]

To my dear students (past and present), I know I’ve probably bored you with these points before, but…I’m a firm believer in repetition, particularly when it comes to topics about which I feel so strongly.  And I feel strongly about you, your lives, and your survival, so brace yourself—I’m stepping up onto my soapbox again. […]

THE BEAUTY TYRANNY (All photos are of beautiful places visited during my southern travels…) I wanted to write a blog about my southern adventure that would highlight the wacky-wise-wonderfulness of the Norris clan, family friends since long before I was born.  I wanted to try to retell some of our stories and transcribe a list […]

McJOURNEY THANKS July 5th, 2008 – I was here in South Carolina, waiting most of the day for the phone call.  When it came, it tilted my world to a precarious angle and shifted the foundation of all I thought was solid in my life.  Breast cancer.  The second cancer in one year.  I wasn’t […]

KINDRED SCARS Finally.   F-I-N-A-L-L-Y!  Dotsy and I met over the Internet many months ago.  Her daughter found me by Googling Microcystic Adnexal Carcinoma and, as it turns out, the two of us are among the only 300 reported cases of MAC worldwide.  And that’s just the beginning of what we have in common!  We’d never […]

DEFLATER MOUSE Photos taken during and after a recent rainstorm. My mom and I were driving back from the airport after I arrived in the States a couple weeks ago, and I was behind the wheel.  Jetlag, you see, isn’t much of an issue when there are O’Charley’s chicken fingers at the end of the […]

(Don’t see a red background?  Please click here: https://www.xanga.com/serenitymine) My world has been somewhat focused on renovations, lately.  And not just because my decrepit kitchen was recently replaced by a shiny new one (thank you, dear landlady!).  No, my obsession with renovation came from a writing project that has monopolized my imagination for the better […]